These stairs are an interesting way to demonstrate a step process that is inefficient, ineffective, disruptive, etc. The stairs are equally vertically spaced except for one step. This one step represents a barrier or major obstacle. This series contains nine sets of stairs: 2 stairs through 10 stairs, with all of the variations and including one with equally spaced steps.

Take a look at the series example. Too many activities reside in step 3. The next slide might be a 9-step equally spaced set of stairs that spread out the steps in the original step 3. This is a good option if step 3 can be broken into sequential steps. If the activities in step 3 need to be performed in parallel, then restate the activities as bullet points, stacked boxes containing activities, or other stacked arrangement that implies separate efforts taking place at the same time.